Woo-Hoo!

Guess what? We found my keys! I had looked everywhere. I tend to be pretty routine about where I put certain things, I don't just drop them will-nilly anywhere. I was out of ideas; except one: the garbage. Oh god, I saw things in there I don't ever want to see again. Fortunately Adam had not gone to the dump in two weeks so there was a lot of possibility out there. He had the idea (I did not realize this at first) to start with the older garbage. We are picking through stuff I don't even want to dream about. I started acting like a girl and crying and saying things like I can't take this anymore and mostly watched him going through the garbage looking for MY keys. Then we got to the most recent bag and I'm like why didn't we start with this one, it's the most likely possibility? This bag was tolerable to look through, still I let him do most of the looking while I pondered other possibilities. Then I hear those beautiful words: found them! I have no idea how they ended up there except for the same reason my soymilk sometimes ends up in the cupboard. That and I really haven't been myself for the last few weeks, like six really.

Feeling good today. I think my headache has really, truly lifted. I feel a little shaky and weird though. I think I am coming down off a lot of drugs. I bought some detox tea which I've been saturating my body with and gonna make some pots!

Bird bath bases and brains

I am becoming desparate to find images to post. My battery is on my camera is dead, can't find the charger and that's my predicament. Good and bad news. I woke up today and my headache is probably 90% gone. I've been playing it pretty low-key so as not to aggravate anything all day. Went to work (I work part-time as a silversmith) and doing quiet stuff, wore earplugs when I had to hammer, kept the lights off. Everyone's being really cool about working in the dark and finding low-key stuff for me to work on. I'm pretty lucky there. Unfortunately about three o'clock I felt it returning so about 4 when I realized I think it was really here I took an Aleve, half a Percocet and my last Indomethacin (it was only a three pill script). I was feeling hungry and have been told not to let myself get hungry cause it can bring on a headache. So ate an early dinner and going to go for a walk with the Daister and chill out with some yoga. Woke up at 5 this morning and was doing my yoga by 6:30 or so which I really like doing in the morning. I never thought of myself as a morning person but I'm starting to dig it, as long as I'm in bed by maybe 11:00.

Oh, the image above it the base to a bird-bath. It has not been fired yet. I am worried I already posted it but don't remember. After it is bisqued I will likely rub some oxide wash into it and wipe off the excess. It will look a lot like wood once it is high fired. The base was made in three pieces, each about 8 lbs. I threw them like a hollow tube and once they were firm enough to handle (leatherhard for the non-potters out there) I joined them really well. I already fired two and had no cracking at all. I think you just have to join them well and let them dry really slowly. I had these under plastic for probably at least 2 weeks slowly exposing them to more air the dryer they became. I apologize if my writing is a little dull, but creativity is not my strongest trait right now.

Alright, chow for now. If you tune in later sometime this week I promise to have some new deliciously wet pots made for you to see. I think I'm back baby.

Oh what a glorius morning, oh what a wonderful day . . .

Well, while it is too soon to grasp on too tightly to my hope I would like to share the glorious new that my semi-permanant brain-pain has lifted. It is not gone entirely, but to the extent that I feel almost normal again, meaning I can use my brain for something other that regulating my basic body funtions. I can actually think! Resorting back to pharmecuticals (spell?) again last night I took two Immotrex and two Aleve and there was a noticeable improvement this morning. Now, I would like to share my non-traditional and probably not reccommended additional remedy and that is that I washed my meds down with two bloody marys. I figured nothing could get much worse than it was and I might as well have a little fun while I was dying. And please, before you worry too much about the horrible, inconceivable "danger" of mixing the drugs I am on with alcohol (say that word in a really ominous tone of voice) I think there is more to be concerned with mixing all the drugs I have been on with eachother-PERIOD. If there is danger anywhere, there is danger in that Will Robinson.

I am not done with my pharmecutical cocktail yet however. This afternoon I added Indomethacin and Propranolol again. Also, Sunday I had the temporary pleasure of an IV with Dilawdin (?). THAT was great for the pain, and not too bad for the mind, but short-lived. Good thing is, if this relief lasts, I am back to making pots. Can't find my battery charger for my camera. Also lost my car keys the other day. Maybe they're under that egg in the frying pan on that commercial, "this is your brain . . ."

Still in La-la Land

Well, yesterday was not the best day of my life. I was trying pretty hard not to take any pain meds for my headache but lost it yesterday and went to the emergency room it was so bad. They put me on an IV of something that actually worked for about 2 wonderful hours. There is such a feeling of peace that comes over you when you are not in pain anymore (probably the high from the drug didn't hurt either). Cat scan was normal. Good I don't have a brain tumor, bad that I still don't know what's going on.

As the Borg say, resistence is futile

Okay, I am breaking my own rule about not posting photos of cute kids and sunsets and I have been resisting for some time but have lost the battle within. Above is a photo of my daughter. Normally she does not have purple hair and cat-ears but I am sure there was a holiday she was celebrating. Below is my grandson from last fourth of July. His mother, the purple-haired girl, enjoys festooning him according to the holiday, superbowl, season (she puts shorts on him in summer and sweaters in winter-crazy). You should have seen him last Superbowl, for that matter you should have seen her. I didn't even know they made Patriots earrings but she managed to find some. If I didn't give birth to her myself I would be convinced she were not from my loins, we are so different.
So as an early July 4th posting here is Star-Spangled Baby.


I guess I should think of renaming my blog The Mindpot or something. Still battling the headache. I have taken myself off of the meds they had me on because they are not working and I can't even think too clearly anymore. Here is a list of every chemical I have put in my precious body in the last five weeks (post surgery to current headache): Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Ambien, Clonazepram, Immitrex, Keterolac, Oxycodone, Prednisone, Propranolol, Col-Rite, and Aleve. Yesterday I began taking Arnica Montana 30x but it is homeopathic so I'm not too stressed about that one. What a cocktail huh? That's just insanity. I am supposed to go back o the doctor again on Monday and he thinks I should have a Cat-Scan. However, during my last visit he said a Cat-Scan could be done but was more often than not useless so I question the need for one now. I fell asleep last night around 10:00 and it could have been a good solid nights sleep, except that I woke up at 2:00 and couldn't get back to sleep. I am incredibly tempted to take one of my Ambiens and sleep but am trying really hard to de-tox and drinking some cleansing herbal tea instead. I will endure the day like a zombie, do some more yoga and hope for sleep tonight. Oh yeah, I cold turkeyed caffeine today as well. This has it's benefits perhaps and liabilities. I never used to drink caffeine but a couple of months ago started drinking two cups of black tea every morning. Caffeine can trigger headaches. But, going off caffeine can also trigger headaches. Ay yi yi.

Tea for ten

It's kinda late. Just got home from an open mic. Kind of chill tonight but nice. I still have my headache and it's pretty fierce. I do have some new hope at the end of my tiny rainbow though. I ran into an old friend, or rather someone I knew in the past and have run into a couple of times since but now feels like a friend, and he suggested I try internal Arnica. I have used Arnica gel on my knees while hiking and was blown away by how it took the pain away so I got home and did a little Googling about the oral Arnica and I'm going to the health food store first thing in the morning. I can't live like this, I can function, but barely. It's like existing and participating in life when there is always something else on your mind (quite literally in this case). This shit they have me on is not working. I am so pumped up on drugs it's crazy. Except painkillers if you remember which I quit. Yah, that's fun having a migraine and not taking anything for the pain. Yah I'm all over that. I'm going to try meditating tomorrow. See what happens. And getting more involved with my yoga can't hurt. Or I could just try some more expensive, ineffective drugs. Sorry, I'm feeling a little cynical. It really hurts.

Chehalis-a woman beyond

This is a wonderful self-portrait of a beautiful photographer named Chehalis Hegner. I highly recommend looking at her website and if possible attending one of her shows. Her work is always compelling and very human. This is reprinted without her permission, but I hope she doen't mind since I am printing with the highest admiration for her work. chehalishegner.com

The Melon Head

Well, so far I don't look like a melon, and really in the grand scheme of possible facial disfigurements my possible temporary facial enlargement is really nothing to worry too much about.

We usually don't have cable. I have lived without it for probably 10 years, but Adam wanted to try it and thought it would be good for my recuperation after my surgery, and I have to admit it was. I spent many hours watching things I never would have watched (like America's Top Model and What not to Wear [Thanks Stacy and Clinton for setting me straight])) and other such programs, but I quite literally did not have the physical or mental energy to expend on anything else for a couple of weeks and it probably kept me from going a little koo-koo. But now we are talking about it being time to say good-bye to cable again. I will miss the Dailey show, the Cobert Report, Next Gen., Cash Cab and a few others, but I can easily, without any residual pain, live without them. There is simply way too much to do in life.

You may be wondering why the picture of the cake. I am not too good at justifying or lying so the reason is because I havn't been making enough new pottery to photograph any. That is the sad truth. Between my operation and the headache which has taken permanent residence in my brain, not much is going on. So here is a cake to celebrate my inactivity. It is actually a birthday cake I once made for Adam, Black Forrest. But in the interest of recycling we'll use it for a second occasion. Happy not doing anything to me, happy not doing . . .